Bus error: Jake Billo’s weblog

Quite a number of new systems I’ve built have included the P5B Deluxe or P5B Deluxe-WiFi motherboards. After an aggravating experience with a new build today - really out of the ordinary for the hardware - I figured I’d write up my experiences to save other people a potential issue.

Symptoms: When installing Vista x64 on a P5B Deluxe with 4GB RAM, the installation wizard blue screens and fails with a STOP message. I’d initially tried to pin this to the Intel ICH8R storage controller, since this was my first setup running a RAID1-array on a 64-bit OS. Unfortunately, RAID1 is almost necessary for a new home system these days because hard drives do fail, and people don’t like burning 500GB of their personal files to DVD.

However, even after setting the IDE controller to “Compatible” in BIOS, I received different errors - some apparently related to RAM, and the Windows Memory Test on the Vista installation DVD indicated that the machine had hardware issues. I broke out my copy of Memtest86, which found nothing out of the ordinary.

I tweaked the BIOS settings - memory remapping, PECI support - all with no real results or varied blue screen messages.

The solution eventually came to me when I was re-browsing Asus’ download site for BIOS upgrades. As part of all new system builds, I upgrade the BIOS to the latest stable version available. Unfortunately, Asus has two separate pages for these upgrades: one which just indicates “new BIOS releases”, and another page that lets you know which ones are beta versions. One thing you don’t want to do for a stable family system is install a beta BIOS, and any revisions publicly available after April 2007 are considered betas.

I likely wouldn’t have experienced this issue (and indeed proved it) if there was only 2GB of RAM in the system, or I wasn’t using an Intel E6750 1333MHz CPU. So, lesson learned? Make sure you read all the BIOS pages on Asus’ site before downloading and installing one. Currently I’m planning on reverting back to the latest official 1101 version, as opposed to version 1216 which seems to display these issues.

Update: Apparently downgrading your BIOS is a trickier proposition than originally thought. EZ Flash 2 (the built-in flash utility) will not downgrade BIOS versions, so you have to locate a copy of a DOS application called AFUDOS that supports downgrading:

AFUDOS 2.07

From this application, you’ll need to make a bootable USB stick/CD/floppy with the older BIOS image on it, and then use the command:

AFUDOS /iBIOS.ROM /pbnc /n

where BIOS.ROM is the path to the BIOS file you’d like to flash.

Repeating this here because it might help anyone with a recent nVidia card running XviD video:

There’s a diagonal blocking/lag issue with the nVidia 8800-series cards when playing video using the commonly used Combined Community Codec Pack. To fix this, click Start / All Programs / Combined Community Codec Pack / FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration. (If you don’t have CCCP installed, double-click the black and white ffdshow icon in your system tray when playing an XviD video.)

Scroll down to the bottom of the left panel and choose Output, then check “YV12″ under Planar YUV. Click OK, restart your video and any blocking issues should be resolved. Here’s the finished dialog:

Original solution from the CCCP forums, but we all know how short-lived those can be.

I’ve decided to take a look at my Webalizer statistics for the months of April and May to figure out what people are searching for. It also helps me tailor the content on this ugly green and beige page to what people might be interested in.

If you’ve got a question about something I’ve written, or want to know more details about a particular subject, leave a comment! I’ll get back to you as soon as I check my email, which, now that I have a Blackberry, is more frequent than ever.

ml-2010 errors: Sorry, can’t help you there. My Samsung ML-2010 has been working really well, even from a Windows box networked to OS X. You also may want to specify the error message that you’re receiving.

svchost cpu usage 99%: Sadly, there haven’t been many updates to this situation since I last updated the post on the matter. My solution is still to disable Microsoft Update from the Windows Update / Change settings / Disable Microsoft Update software page, since I haven’t seen much of a tangible benefit from systems using MU versus standard WU.

It’s more likely to cause problems than it solves, especially with respect to drivers. I wonder if they’ve fixed that issue with Dell boxes and GeForce2 cards that causes WU to deliver a 640×480-limited resolution… (the solution is to tell Windows Update to never install the faulty driver, and get the official nVidia one.)

because nothing can fly with this broken wing music lyrics: This one’s easy to recall - the post was about OMGLOLEMO music, and the specific artist is Story of the Year. The relevant song was Burning Years off the Page Avenue album - which I actually own a legal copy of (but somehow have misplaced it!)

Speaking of emo bands, here are just some of the top artists on my playlist of angst, which is also coincidentally called “4+ Stars”:

• A Day to Remember (pretty much screamo, but the non-screaming parts have fairly good vocals, or at least pretty good Pro Tools work)
• The Academy Is
• Anberlin
• Boys Like Girls (more mellowed sound)
• Chiodos
• Linkin Park (the new album is super power pop angst IMO)
• Saosin
• The Used (specifically the new promo track The Bird And The Worm)

I do indeed listen to other music, by the way. My latest artist of hilarity is Mims, whose concert posters a few friends and myself spotted in Toronto the other week. He’s clearly an absolute genius with “This Is Why I’m Hot” and continues his vocal prowess with “Like This.”

bus error: Yes, that’s the title of this weblog. It stems from several cryptic OS X error messages. What else do you want from me?

As an aside, “bus error php” and MySQL bus errors mean that you’ve seriously ruined something with your configuration, or your hardware is toasted. I’ve never seen these apps throw the standard POSIX error messages, and frankly, you should rethink your purpose if you’re getting that kind of nonsense out of those tools.

custom resolutions nvidia not available vista: Run XP. Vista is indeed pretty, but XP has not exhibited one of the many symptoms I experienced with Vista’s installation. Like I’ve said, it’s fairly standard hardware for a new system: Asus P5B Deluxe board, eVGA GeForce 7800GT, Core 2 Duo E6600, 2GB of OCZ RAM… you’d think there’d be few issues with this sort of thing.

download convection font: Sure, you can find the Convection font right here.

driver for samsung ml2010 printer for windows: Oh, honestly. Learn to search and type in addresses: Samsung Product Downloads, type in the model number, and you’re golden.

driver vista viewsonic vx2025wm: Again! No Vista! Ruins lives!

is it safe to update a modified xbox 360: Safe? Depends how modified it is. Check Xbox-Scene for all your 360 modding needs, you filthy pirates.

kf42e200a: Good TV, I got it for $999 at Future Shop. Don’t pay any more if you can help it.

msdnaa vista number of installs: 2, then activation hell.

phpmyadmin futurepoint: Ooh, an interesting one! Look up the IP address of your server by running an “nslookup” command to your domain. Then, go to http:///MyAdmin/ and sign in with your MySQL credentials. You can also use the “nsxx-y.futurepoint.com” URL instead of the IP address, depending which nameserver you’re connected on.

All for now. Going to crash and think about proper normalized form database design, since it’s actually practical in my job.

I know a lot of people in Southwestern Ontario have Rogers for their broadband ISP, and sometimes it’s extremely useful to be able to diagnose problems with your cable modem signal if you’ve been experiencing intermittent connection issues. Usually the phone support technicians won’t do anything based on this information, since they have the ability to read signal levels from the call center, but showing the levels to a field technician might assist in figuring out the issue.

Overview
In order to follow these instructions, you’ll need a Motorola SB5100-series modem provided by Rogers. These modems are the standard ones deployed for all tiers, with the exception of Ultra Lite; a few people I’ve talked to have had the old Terayon “black box” or “blue shark fin” models installed when they order the lower tier of service.

If you have Rogers Home Phone service, you’ll likely have a Scientific Atlanta voice+Ethernet gateway, which as far as I’m aware doesn’t work with this configuration page. You may want to check out the Rogers forums on dslreports.com for more information.

Your modem also must be active: this means that the first four lights (going from top to bottom) should be green, and the fifth light should be either solid amber or blinking amber. The last light (Standby) should be off. If your modem isn’t synchronized, you won’t be able to access the status page.

Configuration URL
The URL for the SB5100 configuration and status page is http://192.168.100.1. From this page, you can access the Signal and Logs tabs, which give most of the relevant information for the modem.

Signal Tab
In the signal tab, you’ll want to look for the following values:

• Downstream Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): This number should be over 30 dB ideally; values under 30 indicate a less than quality connection, although it’s possible to have a number as low as 25 here with a working connection.
• Downstream Power Level: The power level is one of the more important factors in having a quality connection. This scale goes from -15 dB to +15 dB, with numbers closer to 0 dB being better. If this number is under -12 or over +12, you may have connection issues.
• Upstream Power Level: This value should be as low as possible, with values above 50 indicating connection quality loss. Anything up to 55 should be functional, but many connections will cut out completely above 57 dBmV.

A snapshot of my current signal readings:

The Logs tab will have information on the latest disconnects that the modem has experienced. Entries with a date of 1970-01-01 are errors that occurred before the modem received the latest timestamp information from the provider.

I was sitting down last night at my system when the O letter key on my new MacBook keyboard flipped off. I’d noticed it was on a slight angle compared to the other keys, but the keycap and little plastic attachment sprung back in my face. I wasn’t even typing on it at the time - rather, I was using a USB keyboard.

For the record, nothing looks broken, but I’m not much one for shoving this little plastic piece into a tiny slot - there’s a severe risk of snapping something. I figured I’d take it down to the CampusTechShop at UW and have the on-duty tech take a look at it.

Apparently, he’s on vacation until next week, so I headed over to the CHIP (twice in two days) where I was told that it’d be a five-day turnaround time before someone managed to repair the system.

I’ve opted to head over to Carbon Computing tomorrow and see if their on-site tech can deal with this. If all else fails, it won’t be me breaking it.

Barring any monkey business… ev98.net works again. Carry on as usual. Please report any errors and I’ll crank out a fix as soon as is possible.

In other news, co-op rankings begin Friday at 1pm. Good luck to any UW-goers in this process.

In other news, I just wrote an essay for English that has made me enraged at slippery slope arguments. Why must people continue to prove Godwin’s Law, even in professional writing?

I’ve been running the RTM version of Windows Vista on my primary PC workstation for a little less than a month. I figured I’d have a license key to enter from UW’s MSDNAA program before the end of February, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the promised serial number would be delivered before the activation timer expires. While it was useful to have around, since all new computers being purchased these days are coming with it, there comes a point where I get fed up.

In my case, the primary issue was that of driver incompatibility. nVidia’s latest (even beta) drivers do not allow users to set custom resolutions for Vista. What’s more, it might not be a scenario in which the feature is “not there yet” - my random searching has led me to believe that Microsoft’s WHQL certification process may preclude custom resolution switching.

Since my Viewsonic VX2025wm uses a resolution setting of 1680×1050@60Hz, and I’m running the monitor through a KVM switch that doesn’t expose EDID information, I have to force the issue with the nVidia (or ATI) drivers installed. The problem doesn’t occur when I run the monitor using its DVI port, but VGA connections in Vista - even without the KVM switch - refuse to acknowledge the monitor’s capabilities.

I did try several alternatives - a “hacked INF” file, and using a tool called PowerStrip. Both of these attempts failed miserably, and PowerStrip only led me to believe that paying $30 for the full version would be like paying $30 to bang my head against a wall.

That application is the epitome of “don’t touch this if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I like to think I know what I’m talking about with my own hardware, but when presented with at least twenty different settings in a confusing, menu-driven interface, it’s hard to know what might irrevocably ruin one of my nicer pieces of equipment.

The problem with Vista, as I see it, is not really based on anything Microsoft does. They can rest assured that their new operating system will help reduce their current issues with spyware and malware and leave it at that. I just don’t see the reason to upgrade if I can’t have one of my key features. While the DVI+USB 4-port KVM switch is a project of mine for the future, I shouldn’t need it in order to function properly.

User Account Control in Vista will be a real piss-off when someone writes the following program (spyware), though:

// pseudocode follows
function installNastySpyware()
{
do {
MessageBox("You *must* click 'Allow' on the next dialog in order to install Cute Little Happy Cat Cursors.", "Cute Little Happy Cat Cursors");
AuthenticationToken token = getTokenFromOS();
} while (token.authLevel < AUTH_ADMINISTRATOR);
// go to town on system
using token.authPermissions {
System.installCrapEverywhere();
}
}

Update March 5, 2007: Microsoft has apparently released a patch for this issue available publicly at KB article Q927891. This specific article exactly describes the issue I had with a client’s computer. I backtracked a few referral links to this post and noticed the discussion on Ars Technica’s forums. Thanks to people there for following up on this.

Quick note for the tech-savvy: I’ve been reinstalling several systems lately for clients, and here’s something to check on your own boxes if you’re having strange stalling or CPU usage problems.

This problem typically occurs under these circumstances:

• You have Windows 2000, XP or 2003 Server installed on your system (I’m not sure if Vista is affected)
• You’ve installed Microsoft Update as the Windows Update page recommends
• You have a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 or any Office 2003 applications installed (this could affect previous versions, too)

If your CPU usage is randomly spiking to 99% or 100% with a svchost.exe instance, download Process Explorer and look for the svchost.exe instance that’s pegging your machine’s processor. If, when you expand the process, you see “wuauclt.exe” or a Windows Update thread running, your problem is related to this bug.

Microsoft does have a KB article about this issue (927891) and it’s been mentioned by a few Microsoft MVP’s - here’s how you go about getting the official hotfix. If you don’t want to go through all that rigamarole, I’ll be calling in this week to acquire the hotfix for some of my clients experiencing this issue.

Alternatively, to fix it RIGHT DAMN QUICK NOW? Hit the jump.

Continue reading ‘svchost.exe causing 99% - 100% CPU usage, solution follows’ »

I’ve arrived home from Markham - my work term officially concluded on December 22nd - and I’m settled in, for the most part. The entire Christmas holiday seems to have gone by far too quickly, because I’m headed back to school within a day. For the most part, my preparation for classes has been limited to updating browser bookmarks and ensuring all of my workstations are functional. The usual administrative tasks, such as securing textbooks, will be performed on Wednesday through to Friday this week.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t check my exact UW schedule at 2am: I tend to work best in the evening hours, on an offset timeframe. Not having Quest (the student information portal) available past midnight necessitates some planning.

My class hours reflect this alternate way of operation. My goal for Winter 2007 was not to start any class before 11:30am, which I’ve achieved with an early start on course selection. In return for the late start, I give up my afternoons and tend to work well past midnight. My rationalization for this operation is that I woke up early (7am) for four years during high school to catch the bus, and I deserve to sleep in when I can. While sleeping until 11am isn’t really a valid option while on a work term, I did use some of the flexibility available at IBM to delay my start time until 9:30 - 10am when I could.

Besides continuing to work for IBM as a student on-call employee, I’m now starting the job search and application process. (The Student On-Call process can involve working on-site on alternating days, or in my case, working on an “as available” schedule remotely.)

My resume is nearly complete, and is in a publicly available state. I’m debating removing some of the work experience information from Maplesoft, or compressing the Summer 2006 student on-call position experience into the previous co-op term. One thing that was mentioned to me was that the entire “student on call” process is indicative of a job well done while physically on-site. Yes, this is shameless self-promotion, but my point remains.

I’ve also been managing my time with some PC repairs on the side. Together with Dave and Warren, I fix software and hardware issues on-site, on a small-scale word of mouth basis. When I’m on a co-op term, in order not to interfere with my professional responsibilities, I redirect client calls to Dave or Warren, depending on the situation experienced. When I’m living in Waterloo, I additionally build or repurpose PC’s for clients.

Usually “software” issues are the result of spyware or malware. It’s extremely rare that I’ve seen an actual virus on a system - most computer problems I’ve seen are caused by malicious browser toolbars, or don’t explicitly fit the criteria for a virus.

Unfortunately, spyware can be just as painful for end users, and is much more deceiving in its appearance. Perhaps the worst case of spyware I’ve heard of is an application called “MSN Block Checker”, which completely demolished a Windows installation, necessitating a complete reinstallation of the OS.

For now, though, I’ll enjoy my last day off before it’s back to the grind.